Butterball sues city over First and Main zoning change

Lawsuit claims improper meeting notice, illegal 'spot zoning'

By Tony KindelspireLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
03/26/2013 11:57:24 AM MDT

Updated:
03/26/2013 03:54:28 PM MDT

Butterball's properties consist of seven parcels on about 27.5 acres of land, with 326,209 square feet of building space. Not highlighted is a small, 0.07-acre slice of ground on the southeast corner of Parcel 2, as shown.
(Times-Call file)

The former operator of Longmont's turkey processing plant has filed a lawsuit claiming that the city's rezoning of the First Avenue and Main Street area should be overturned.

The Longmont City Council voted 5-2 in January to rezone an area near the city's planned First and Main transit station to mixed use from mixed industrial. The city has said the intent is to prepare the area for redevelopment opportunities that would surround construction of a transit station north of First Avenue along Main.

The rezoned area is a little more than 103 acres, bounded by Second Avenue on the north, Pratt Parkway on the west, Martin Street on the east and the St. Vrain River to the south.

Butterball owns seven parcels that sit on about 271/2 acres, the majority of which are east of Main Street. The company's Longmont production facility was shut down at the end of 2011 and has since been put on the market.

Butterball claims the rezoning violates its ability to sell the property to an industrial food producer. Specifically, in the original lawsuit filed Feb. 19 in Boulder District Court and in a subsequent filing March 15, Butterball claims:

The city did not provide proper notice of public meetings where the rezoning was being discussed. This includes council meetings, planning and zoning commission meetings and even a neighborhood meeting dating back to last August.

While going through the rezoning process, the city knew Butterball had hired a commercial broker to market the property as an industrial food production facility, which was an approved use before the rezoning.

The lawsuit states that "the goal of the rezoning is to 'revitalize' the rezone area and to promote development, which is purely for the enhancement of tax revenue, which is not a proper or valid reason for rezoning."

It also states that because one-quarter of the total rezoned area is owned by Butterball, the rezoning ordinance "constitutes illegal and improper spot zoning."

The Longmont city attorney's office and city spokesperson both declined to comment on the lawsuit. Attempts to reach Butterball and its attorneys were unsuccessful.

The council's vote to rezone the property included a provision for existing businesses to stay as an exception to the mixed use rezoning. But that exception goes away if an industrial business leaves and isn't replaced by another business of the same type within a year.

Butterball recently concluded a "sealed bid" process with the intent of finding a buyer for its seven parcels as fast as possible. The company's brokers, CBRE, sent out a request for bids with a deadline of March 15.

Tyler Carner, a first vice president with CBRE, said this week that he had no comment on how the sealed bid process went or how many, if any, bids were received.

Along with asking for the rezoning ordinance to be overturned, Butterball is also asking for compensatory damages, attorney fees and interest and other costs associated with the lawsuit.